Special Assistant to former Governor Godswill Akpabio on Diaspora Affairs, Mr Clement Ikpatt, has berated Governor Udom Emmanuel for insulting his predecessor. Udom had in an exclusive interview he granted ThisDay Newspaper, published on Sunday June 25,2017, with the headline, “Emmanuel, There Is No Alternative to PDP Yet”, called the Senate Minority Leader “lousy”, a characterization that did not go down well with Akpabio’s loyalists.
“As a banker, his experience and exposure came handy and today, Akwa Ibom is generally believed to have fared better than the days of the lousy ‘uncommon transformation’ with a relatively conservative but generous effective approach to governance”, Udom’s introductory part of the interview stated.
Following the outrage and condemnation that trailed the Onna born ex banker comment, the state commissioner for information in an attempt at damage control the crisis issues a press statement in which he declared that while the Akwa Ibom State Government aligns itself with the contents of the interview which are excerpts of the views expressed by Udom, the Government completely dissociate itself from the introductory aspect of the publication which tends to cast aspersion on the records and achievements of the immediate past Governor and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Hear him: “The attention of the Government of Akwa Ibom State has been drawn to an interview granted by the Governor His Excellency Mr Udom Emmanuel, and published on ThisDay Newspaper of Sunday June 25,2017, with the headline, “Emmanuel, There Is No Alternative to PDP Yet”.
“While we align ourselves with the contents of the interview which are excerpts of the views expressed by His Excellency, the Governor, we completely dissociate ourselves from the introductory aspect of the publication which tends to cast aspersion on the records and achievements of the immediate past Governor and Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Mr Charles Udoh, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, stated.
But Ikpatt fired back at the State government’s response, saying the explanation was twisted and hypocritical.
In his words, “How does one align with contents of a newspaper publication, which are excerpts of an interview, but disassociate from (not deny) the introductory aspect that, of course, is also a content?
“Mr. Charles Udoh’s twisted and hypocritical explanation is just a clean up attempt to pull back a genie already out of the bottle. How could such an unthinkable gaffe even begin to form in any mind, let alone be spoken and published? Who in his or her right mind calls Gov. Godswill Akpabio’s “Uncommon Transformation” Initiative lousy? Can you imagine?, he queried.